My first season of planting begonias, and I was scared stiff to dig them up. But, all the books told me to do that, store them in a box in the garage 'til next spring.
Now, late November, and most of them had collapsed, covered over by fast growing foxgloves. Time to pull the bulbs out.
As always, gardening surprises me with how simple things are. The falling stems gently drop away. The bulbs, just under the surface, pop up with a twist of the spade. The dry dirt slips away under my gloved thumbs, and all that is left is twisting hair-like roots.
Most of the bulbs look like they did when I planted them -- little furry disks, with a slight indentation on one side. In my ignorance I was surprised to see that that's where the plant "grows" from.
I slipped the half-dozen little pods into an old yellow Webvan box, on a shelf in my cool garage. See you next spring.
The garden is finally fading in late late autumn. I'm not disappointed. Moreso relieved; maybe I'm just a bit worried that San Francisco is so mild that we'll just miss the cycles entirely, and my plants will exhaust themselves with continuous year-round blooming.
Still so much to do. Books can wait for serious rain.